Does a big T-Rex mouth that scoops up balls and spits them out count?

Don't lie you know when you were a preteen games were flipperless

You mean subway? Kinda surprised I don't see one on this one. Would have figured it would have been a must have for a new JP machine.

Indeed

That is the point of downvoting... There is a false idea on Pinside that a downvote is the equivalent of flagging a post as inflammatory or something. It isn't. From the Pinside FAQ:

What do the arrow up and down buttons do?
Using the up- and downvote buttons, you can tell the poster (and everyone else for that matter) that you (dis)agree with his post.

I hope you did not take any of my downvotes the wrong way. Your posts are very well thought out and great IMO. It only means I disagreed.

Not needed (?) as I understand it the Newton-ball-spinning-Jeepster-slash-Ford-Raptor-on-a-spring initiates modes.

I’m in. Pending Monday

Very nice. Same here. Premium deposit is in their mailbox waiting

I'm wondering if Keith is anti-scoop. Two games without one. The vast majority of their modern games have one. (The Premium/LE of IMDN does have one, but it's hidden and only revealed when it does something, rather than most games which let the ball just fall into one, even when it awards nothing).

I'd also guess that Keith is against plunging into the pops, which seems to be standard on the vast majority of games, but absent on both of his designs.

Maybe it's coincidence, or maybe it's intentional. Either way - I approve!

Is it Monday yet?

I think it is more pro-control than anti-scoop. The way you plunge and get a clean right flipper shot every time is another example of this.

(Also pro-flow if the halfpipes are where scoops would normally be and momentum is maintained up onto the wireforms instead of waiting for an upkick.)

And the up posts are still there to slow things down when needed instead of a scoop.

Keith has had a cool approach in this area. A traditional scoop can really only function as a scoop... but there are other ways to achieve a scoop's goal while keeping things more flexible and dynamic. I like his use of the up/down posts a lot

Since stern has a hard time designing scoops that don’t shoot the ball down the middle, I don’t really mind seeing up posts instead.

Hmm yes and no, I found CC to be a bit of a pain waiting for the posts to drop.

It appears to have 180 degree loop ramps on the left and right sides of the playfield instead of scoops.

It is basically a 4 ramp game.

Borg is the scoop king....and the extra inlane king

Other than AFM, it's pretty hard for me to think of a Bally/Williams scoop that would shoot the ball across the center line of the playfield. Nearly all of their scoops would send the ball in path straight down. Most of Stern's scoops send the ball across, which is bad news when they start getting weak/dirty or have a loose bracket.

That one really send the ball downward to the right flipper, like funhouse.

Unless it doesn’t lol

Maybe you're playing some crazy modified Congo, but both scoops/saucers on the right are supposed to send the ball to the right flipper.

We all know you love Stern, but some of us don't. Get over it. Stern has been stripping value from games for quite some time, which most would agree with. They now appear to be adding back value for the dollar. I didn't mention the T-Rex at all in my post. This game is as loaded as their games USED to be. I compliment the company and you still find a way to troll. LoL.

I quickly looked through the Top 100 and came up with three others: Monster Bash, Whitewater, and World Cup Soccer. So there are a handful, but I'd guess that it happens in like 10-20% of their games. For Stern it's much more prevalent, at least for the most recently released games: Munsters, Deadpool, Guardians, Star Wars, Metallica, Ghostbusters all have it.

TNA scoop eject has an auto ball saver for a second or so.

This is me being nit-picky, but I really don't consider Stern's scoops to be "Scoops". If I can see the ball sitting there waiting to come back to me....it just doesn't feel the same like the Chair/Swamp on TAF, SOL on AFM, Mosh Pit on MB, Slot Machine/Piano on TZ, Cellar on Whirlwind, etc.

I think the last game from Stern to REALLY give a true scoop was the Mystery Scoop on Metallica where it actually goes underneath the PF and cannot be seen.

On a less nit-picky note look what is on SyFy today : ). Maybe I'll have to consider getting one more and more ; ).pasted_image (resized).png

I don't think that's nit-picky at all. Scoops are supposed to be the end of a sewer line IMHO. I call Stern's potholes because they are not scoops. Stern just doesn't do sewers anymore, except if you consider IMDN's micro sewer. I'm guessing that's why Kieth doesn't bother.

My last Stern game was The Avengers premium. I quit buying Sterns because I felt they had really cheapened their products and nothing happened that changed my opinion. Until JP. I just ordered an LE. It looks like the 'real deal' to me. I hope my instincts are right in this but if not, I guess I can always resell it.

You can't do worse than Avengers. That's just not possible!

Yeah I love Stern apparently and yet I'm the troll in a Stern thread, genuis. To say they have been shit for years and finally without even playing u know they have a winner is a compliment? and don't say "we" as if you speak for all of pinside.

Saucers vs scoops.. Scoops the ball drops into, and fire the ball to flow up the curved return or via VUK. Saucers the ball sits in above the PF and is kicked out of the hole.

Batman 66 has a scoop as well - but with VUK return tho vs returning where the ball came from.

Can you elaborate on what they cheapened? I don't see that much of a difference in quality between Avengers and the 10-15 games released before that.

Also, the whole center of the Avengers playfield sucks. It's an interesting/unique design, but it doesn't work, and the game is clunky as hell. I wouldn't use that as a basis for how modern Sterns play. That one is the exception, not the rule.

I can agree with that. My argument is about all scoops/saucers/potholes. (Congo is potholes, for example, as is WCS).

Think "kickout" is an appropriately generic term that applies to all?

Well sometimes I think whats cheapened are pinsiders themselves. A lot of foolishness around here, but then again thats why I love it.

Never said they've been shit and never said it is a winner. More trolling. Good day to you sir.

It’s no

Lemme explain:

Entertainment journalists are just that, we write news about entertainment (e.g. video games, comics, pinball) — based on things like interviews, investigations, and press releases (the least fun!).

Stern has nothing to do with IGN covering pinball. I do. I operate pins at Free Gold Watch in San Francisco for fun, and I’m an editor at IGN for my real job. I love pinball! I have to bug Stern for coverage just like Disney, or EA.

IGN is the biggest game/geek entertainment platform in the world. My goal is to use it to bring pinball to more people. I do pinball articles on my own time because they definitely don’t get enough traffic to make them worthwhile on the company’s time. Even better, I’m the Managing Editor so I can manage my own time!

No other mainstream entertainment outlets go after pinball stories. That’s good for me! I can score exclusives. Which I go after vigorously.

Journalism!

It was implied, good day to u sir, I said good day.

Some of the best pins have been made by Stern after Avengers like Metallica and ST to name two. It’s almost like a bad experience with a bad game like Avengers and he’s painting everything else with that brush.

The Stern cheapness has been discussed to death, but the days of posts instead of service rails was the worst period. Spike vs Sam and putting a cheap power source in the backbox are big ones to me. Splitting cabs and of course everyone's favorite, coil count!!! I also find that playing my IMDN after IM is night and day for weight. I can toss around IMDN like a six year old, but IM is like tossing around a fatty.

JP2 has a crazy amount of mechs, which is why I'm excited. I personally prefer games that have a bunch of neat ball manipulations. This is a stark contrast to Munsters and BKSOR. I think we owe a lot to Kieth!

No editor is telling anyone "oh shit, new pinball, drop everything and cover it!"

I used to cover the new Sterns for Ars Technica. Because I felt like it, not for any other reason. Traffic was okay on them, nothing special, didn't flop.

Then Stern developed personal issues with me because they're petty and I stopped, because why bother when the company is being like that? Like everything in pinball, it's about passion, not making money. Because it's a pretty crap way to make money all around, from making them to operating them. You gotta care or there's no point.

Looks like you can obviously short plunge, and dribble out the right side lane. I'm hoping KMFE has planned a few skill shots again like IMDN, that require that by not going through the inlane, maybe. I like having different benefits and rewards to choose from for the skillshot there, but the guaranteed ball to the flipper full plunge is unusual for a Stern, iirc.

Well that is really clever. A new way to start modes. Awesome, can't wait to see gameplay.

Secret Sling Skill Shot?

Is there a single Stern game that has this? I can't think of one.

There are definitely a few Bally/Williams games: Shadow, Cactus Canyon, WCS, TOTAN, TOM, I500...

Exactly but I wish Maiden had more of this in it.

Junkyard. STTNG if you choose to lock balls off the plunge

I can't think of a single Stern game either. It is a subtle yet huge thing IMO!

Nice to see the ramps go through the backbox to create more space. I always wanted them to do this more since they will never do a widebody pin. Looks fun to me and a lot of shots and ramps which I Love.

Right and that’s what I feel Maiden is missing, fun and fast to play but nothing but shots.

So you're saying IGN wasn't a launch partner of Stern for recent games and it's all happy coincidence IGN has the exclusive photos and launch timing?

Remember.. we're not talking about origin story of how you two came together - but the content.

26-year-old movie assets, not so important.

To me buying a pinball is in a lot of ways like art, either you like it or you don't. I felt the cabinets were not as well constructed as they used to be and the playfield toys were typically one dimensional pieces of plastic instead of molded as they could/should have been, and the mechanics of the Avenger were poorly thought out. But, that is not to say that all was not up to par but only that there were enough things that I did not like in the subsequent games to dissuade me from buying one. And, I was unsure of the spike system after watching the YouTube video posted by the Australian distributor entitled "should you buy a new Stern pinball. But that is hopefully all in the past now. Hopefully that answers your question because that is all I have to say about it.

Stern does that quite often, actually.

LE only has shaker, so how much extra is it for one to be added and can it Be done when ordering up front?

Under $100, five minute install.